Cherry Ripe Heaven

As I stood in the Que at the local supermarket being overwhelmed with boredom I became a slave to advertising as I found myself staring longingly at the selection of cooking magazines that had been strategically placed in eyes view as to draw my attention toward them, having a fetish for cook books and a book shelf filled with them at home it was not long until I gave into my urges, I picked up one of the magazines and began flipping through it, I found myself whisked away to a world of culinary delights, on the front page was a beautifully presented Cherry Ripe Mud Cake, decorated with chocolate and signalling to my brain to salivate just the slightest, as I looked up to see if anyone had noticed my moment of drool, when it dawned on me, my duty when I returned home was to recreate this beautiful specimen for myself, I slipped half a dozen cherry ripe bars onto the conveyor belt loaded with groceries and I began to dream of dancing through a land of cherry ripes, like Homer Simpson's chocolate land, gnawing at cherry ripe puppies and drinking from fountain's of liquid chocolate.

I baked this cake with all the love in the world, I sat in my lounge and was driven mad by the smells drifting from my kitchen as the cake baked in the oven. Best of all I watched as my colleagues at work devoured the cake, telling me that I have in dead missed my calling and that I should open my own cake shop. I bake because I love it, I love it because I find the process of cooking relaxing and the finished product is my reward in the end. I am now going to share this cake with you.

250g butter chopped
400ml can coconut milk
200g dark chocolate melts

2 cups of caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup self-raising flour

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup cocoa

2 x cherry ripe bars coarsely chopped

CHOCOLATE GANACHE (my own little touch)

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. In a bowl combine the butter, coconut milk, chocolate and sugar, place the bowl and cook in the microwave at one minute intervals, stirring each time until the chocolate and butter has melted. Set aside to cool.

Step 2. Whisk the butter and vanilla through the cooled chocolate mixture. Sift the flours and cocoa together and add to the chocolate mixture folding through gently. Stir through half of the cherry ripe.

Step 3. Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin, top with the remaining cherry ripe, bake for 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on your oven, test if your cake is ready by pushing a skewer into the middle of it, if it is ready it will come out clean. Cool in the can tin for ten minutes and then lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 4. Chocolate Gnache: Combine 250g packet of dark chocolate melts with 60g of butter and 1/4 cup of cream. Cook in the microwave until the chocolate has melted, stir well until smooth and then place in the fridge to cool and thicken stirring frequently to maintain smooth constancy.

Step 5. Cut a panel of grease proof paper to fit the width and length of the cake, lay it out on a clean surface. Melt a little chocolate, stir until smooth, pour evenly over the prepared paper and smooth , set aside to harden.

Step 6. When the cake is cold, ice it with the gnache, pipe swirls of ganache on top of the cake and decorate with more chopped cherry ripe. Peel the set chocolate from the greased proof paper and arrange around the cake, use a little of the gnache to fasten it onto the cake.

Enjoy your finished product and share it lovingly with your family and friends, watch as they are wowed by your presentation and listen as they oooh and ahhhhh with every bite. I trust that you will have as much fun baking it as I did. Well, that's enough gabble from me, I must be off now to prepare spaghetti and meat balls for dinner, until next time happy cooking and best of luck.